BEAVER TOWNSHIP — During his time as director of marketing for Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Racecourse, a post that he has held since his arrival in November 2020, Kevin Brogan has witnessed continuous growth, expansion and offerings for visitors at its gaming site.

In 2025, expect more additions to accommodate everyone’s tastes, betting and entertainment needs.

“In terms of offerings, you’ve got the gaming, the VLT’s [video lottery terminals, which are very similar to slot machines, horse racing, dining and live entertainment on Saturday evenings plus we have a sports book on property,” Brogan told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s meeting at Avion Banquet Center. “A year and a half ago, we entered into an agreement with ESPN.

“If you visit our property today, what you will see is an ESPN BET Restaurant and Sportsbook. If you are doing online wagering and downloading a sportsbook app, that app is also ESPN BET.”

Brogan said there is something for everyone when they visit his establishment.

“The VLT machines are very popular,” Brogan said. “Our revenues are posted publicly so you can see that our VLT gaming is dominant when it comes to driving revenue. When racing is in season, which runs from mid-October into April, we also get a great crowd. Sports betting is certainly popular, and we offer just about all pay-per-view events, complimentary and open to the public. It has been a fun one for us where a Saturday evening crowd can really start to pick up at 10 p.m., if there is a big fight, UFC or what not.

“One of the events that is really cool, which we started last year that had already been going on in Austintown but they relocated from the Austintown Plaza to our property, is their Fourth of July Fireworks Celebration. We hosted that event on our land right out near Route 46, so most people who are familiar with driving onto our property, which you can see really well from the main road. There is a lot of open land there. We turned that land into a festival space, so there were over 5,000 people here the Sunday before the Fourth of July, complete with food trucks, live music and a great fireworks display. The community responded with really positive feedback so we are looking forward to bringing that back to our property again this summer.”

On May 3, the Kentucky Derby will mark its 151st Run for the Roses with Mahoning Valley Racecourse forever a part of Churchill Downs’ winners circle.

“Our exciting Kentucky Derby story came in 2022 when the No. 1 jockey from our meet, Sonny Leon, picked up a ride and ended up winning the race on Rich Strike, an 80 to 1 long shot,” Brogan said. “It was the second longest shot ever to win in the history of the Derby and exciting for us because we are familiar with Sonny. It was most exciting for some of our guests to simply bet that horse because they have been betting that jockey for years. They had a pretty darn good score when they cashed in that ticket.”

According to Brogan, post-COVID has attracted a new group of visitors with online betting a new allure and expansion set to add even more games.

“If you look at our revenue reports on the Ohio Lottery Commission website, you will see that we have experienced revenue growth every year post-COVID,” Brogan said. “What post-COVID did for us was it gave us an opportunity to introduce our product to new guests. There wasn’t a lot to do post-COVID, but we were one of the industries that kind of figured out how we can make it work. So at one point, with us being the only game in town, it gave folks a good opportunity to come in and see what we were about. From what we have learned, they really enjoyed what we do.

“The addition of sports betting really brought in a new demographic, a much younger demographic and also introduced more folks to our property. The other thing is, we also want to get out of the cash transaction part of the business because some think, and it is no secret, cash is dirty and carries germs and what not on it. We have introduced technology where you can download our app, PENN Play, link that app to a bank account, move money from that account to the app and then from the app to the game.

“You can come into our property and play gaming without touching cash. You save on ATM fees because certain places charge different rates for ATM transactions. If it is a busy day and there is a line to cash your ticket out for physical cash, you don’t have to get in that line. You simply move that money from the game back into your virtual wallet, similar to like an Apple Pay app. Google Pay offered a similar service and we now have that available for our guests.”

Several projects are already in the works.

“Within the last year, we’ve really spent a lot of time optimizing our gaming force by bringing the more popular games and finding new areas to add games. We have added close to 70 VLT’s over the past 12 months,” Brogan said. “We are currently involved in a mini-expansion project as we are redesigning our main entrance. We will be adding a canopy outside that entrance to protect guests from the weather as they are entering but it is also allowing us to add more gaming floor space so another 15-20 more games are coming with that expansion.

“Then, on the horizon we think there is an opportunity to continue to add some gaming space. We are working with our corporate team, designing construction to cut a model out of what that looks like so there’s some big news coming here in the near future.”

Next Monday, Ray Simon, noted area sports artist, will serve as guest speaker.